reviews

​The Claudettes (from the album Dance Scandal at the Gymnasium!)Psychobilly, 1960’s Rock’n’Soul, and Vaudeville Blues blare from the bandstand as The Claudettes theatre-whisper the news for Dance Scandal at the Gymnasium!, the third, and recent, release from The Claudettes. Backing the coordinated chaos of Johnny Igauna’s frenetic piano are drums and a bass. A trio of female vocals relating the stories on Dance Scandal at the Gymnasium!, chiming together for big-band era harmony over the amphetamine-drive of the music in “Taco Night Material”, chanting one-line mantras for “Bill Played Saxophone”, whirling 60’s Girl-Group Pop around in the cyclonic rhythms of “Total Misfit”, and smoothly curl around the jackhammer groove of “Give It All Up for Good”.

The Chicago, Illinois-based band headed to Georgia, recording Dance Scandal at the Gymnasium! at Soil of the South studios. The Claudettes pounded out the album in ten days, setting an underground-train rumble below “Don’t Stay with Me”, demanding attention for social awareness with the marching-beat-on-steroids for “Death and Traffic”, let The Claudettes instruments run rampant within the beat borders of the title track while Dance Scandal at the Gymnasium! layers throbbing rhythms underneath the smooth Blues vocals of “November”.